REMOVING PINE RESIN

I've found "Goo Gone" great for removing pine tar resin from clothing, camping gear (& car seats!).

Just wash with the proper cleaning surficant for your garment. i.e. don't use liquid detergent on waterproof/breathable membranes like Gore-Tex ans eVent.

Eric

Thanks for the tip,

We have two things here in lower, coastal SC, pine trees & bigger pine trees.

It's a challenge to find interesting places to hike because the inland forest ground is flat, and once you have seen flat land covered in pine trees, you've seen it all. With the exception of being able to get out to the large lakes where we have small islands covered with Cypress trees to explore, and the coastal salt marsh, it's ecosystem is very interesting.

But pine sap galore, also a great fire starter if you have access to it.

As a tree climber, I've heard/read lots of different things to remove pine sap from climbing rope. The things heard suggested include:

Denatured alcohol
Purell
Commercial rope cleaner, available from Bailey's Arborist supply.
Mayonnaise (real mayo) - yes your read that right. Works great on your hands too.
Acetone - OUTSIDE
GooGone, but it remains on/in the material for quite some time.
Alcohol

Note: According to a chemist friend of mine, "The extremely long polymer chains in nylon, polyester, or spectra (polyethylene) should not be affected, in any way, by small-molecule solvents like ethanol and methanol."

Truth is, though, most of us just leave it on the rope, it WILL eventually wear off. On tents and clothing that's a different story. You probably would want to remove the little sticky monster.

Goo-gone.

GooGone unfortunately is a mix of chemicals. So be really careful with it, and even more so with GoofOff. Always try a small amount on a part of the tent, clothes, or whatever you need to clean (or a small swatch of the material that you cut off) in a hidden spot or a spot where it won't matter. If it is a rope on which your life will depend (f_klock's tree-climbing rope or a rock or ice climbing rope), be extremely careful about any cleaning fluids.

As an example of what can happen, I had some pine sap on a tent. I took a section of an old tent and tested Goof-Off on it - it dissolved the nylon. I also tried GooGone - same result (even though the container says nylon is ok).

The GooGone bottle says:

Do not use on silk, satin, wool, velvet, leather, suede, rubber, latex, or vinyl. May dull some types of plastics. DO NOT MIX WITH OTHER CHEMICALS.

....

Contains Petroleum Distillates CAS# 64741-65-7, d-Limonene CAS# 5989-27-5, Orange Oil CAS# 8008-57-9, and Tripropylene Glycol Methyl Ether CAS# 25498-49-1

GoofOff says:

For use on: Nylon, polypropylene, and wool carpets; fully cured varnished and oil-base painted surfaces, vinyl baseboard, laminated countertops, vinyl floors, solid vinyl upholstery, all metals, glass, brick, wood, concrete, grout, vinyl tops, fiberglass, most fabrics.

...

Contains: Acetone, Xylene, Ethylbenzene, Butyl Carbitol, Petroleum distillates, and toluene

Basically, read the labels completely, test out on small samples, and do it outdoors, no matter what you are using.

Bill is right about the cleaners in rope, that is precisely why I said we tend to let sap wear off. Then I clean the rope using the manufacturers recommendations which, incidentally, vary considerably from one to another.

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